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This Teen Finds Time for Multi-Mitzvot

Mitzvah Hero: Sarah Ann Ross, 18, has found a home for her mitzvot, lending a hand where needed and serving as a sounding board for residents at Home of the Sparrow in Exton. The facility provides transitional and shared housing for women and their children in problematic circumstances.

What It’s All About: Ross, an honors student at Upper Merion Area High School, was inspired to take part in the housing nonprofit by her mother, Sanae Brocke-Ross of King of Prussia. (Her dad is Nathan Ross of Center City.) Ross said helping families stabilize and heal is a high priority for her, in part because she is the daughter of a divorced couple.

Not a One-Time Thing: An active member of Temple Brith Achim in King of Prussia, Ross has donated her hair a number of times to Locks of Love, which uses the shorn tresses to make wigs for kids in need.

“It is an awesome feeling to be able to do it,” Ross says.

She is also active in the Octagon Club at school, which stresses communal involvement and giving back as a way of achieving personal fulfillment. One of her projects that really took off? She helped organize a frisbee tournament at school, with benefits going to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Good for Her: Her take on finding time for tikkun olam in a hectic schedule is best summed up in a response she gave when her grandmother, Barbara Dock, asked if she felt stressed out: “Of course, Nan-nan. But I can handle it.”